Forestry workers specialize in dealing with disaster

Ken KayeSun Sentinel

The same people who have been battling wildfires in South Florida in past weeks might end up saving your life, should a hurricane hit. With little fanfare, they’ve helped scores of people in past storms.

These are the firefighters, foresters and other key personnel who work for the Florida Division of Forestry. When Florida was slammed by a barrage of hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, they toiled side by side with the Florida National Guard, the American Red Cross and other rescue organizations.

They handed out emergency supplies, assisted the injured and helped find the missing. They also helped clear debris from roadways, set up emergency staging areas and looked after livestock and other farm animals that were left unattended in the aftermath of the storms.

In other words, they're used to working in the trenches in the critical hours immediately after a storm passes, said Jim Karels, director of the Division of Forestry and who is based in Tallahassee.

“And it goes beyond that,” he said.

Acting at the behest of emergency management, the Forestry Division provides a range of vehicles to assist rescue and recovery operations, including airboats, boats, transport trucks, water trucks, tractors, bulldozers and aircraft.

And, hurricanes aside, they'll react to any disaster, be it manmade or natural. For instance, Karels said, Forestry workers were the first to respond to the ValuJet crash in the Everglades west of Miami in 1996.

“It’s kind of a wide gamut of things we do,” he said. “The division has a lot of resources and equipment to deal with a large-scale disaster.”

Overall, the Florida Division of Forestry has about 1,200 employees. Should a hurricane strike South Florida, about 400 of them would pour into the area, coming from all over the state, Karels said.

In 2004, when four hurricanes hit Florida, Forestry workers assisted several communities, from Pensacola to Boca Raton.

“Some of them responded to all four hurricanes, and some of them did it fixing up their own houses with blue tarps in between,” Karels said. “They’re really dedicated.”

In the past week, forestry firefighters battled a massive wildfire that consumed more than 69,000 acres in southwest Miami-Dade County. With some help from heavy downpours, they were able to contain the fire before it could endanger homes or businesses.

But with the drought continuing – despite the recent rains – they’re still fighting dozens of fires all over the state. Hopefully, their firefighting duties will be completed before any storms threaten.

“We have a good network to bring in supplies and help assist emergency management because of our firefighting work,” Karels said.